Wild Life
by Greenkey2
Summary: Humanity struggles to survive in a nightmarish far-future. Can Lara hope to find the lost city of N'phal and save her people?


© Jennifer R. Milward 2012

This story is a work of fiction. Lara Croft, her likeness, and the Tomb Raider games are all copyright of EIDOS Interactive. There is no challenge to these copyrights intended by this story, as it is a non-sanctioned, unofficial work of the author's own.

Wild Life

1.

Crouched low in the grass, Lara did not stir until she heard the answering two-note whistle to signal that she could advance in safety.

She hefted her bag and darted towards the entrance, hidden under an overhang of great willow branches. Without pause she ran inside, past the guardians who quickly released the ropes. The branches sprang back, and everything fell into darkness.

Lara's eyes swiftly adjusted, making out the men double-checking their weapons - ballistae and crude slings, handfuls of hard-packed black powder and stinging leaves bound with thorny twine.

She picked her way sure-footed in the gloom, the trail sloping steeply downwards. The familiar smells reassured her - damp earth and human sweat, new summer straw and roasting meat.

She had returned to the Croft. She was home.

"Thought you'd gotten lost," Winston remarked, as she slung her latest kill down on the bench. He was ancient by human standards, but had once been the best Scavenger in the whole colony. His hair had turned to white now, and the hands that had set snares and held a bow trembled as he skinned fox and rabbit, but he smiled the smile he always reserved for when Lara visited him.

"Nah, just another Norveg checking through the middens," she replied casually. She unhooked a leg of freshly char-grilled badger and gnawed it appreciatively. "It's enough to give a girl an appetite," she added thickly as juices ran down her chin.

Winston _thunked_ his cleaver into the chopping block. His smile had vanished. "_How_ many times have I told you to stay away from them?" he said. "If they track you back here-"

"Oh relax, Winston," Lara said, tossing the bone on the fire. The air was already thick with smoke. She held up the bag with a knowing wink. "It was worth it. Save some of that rabbit for me, if you'd be so kind."

Shaking his head, Winston went back to his work.

2.

"Well, if it isn't my Lara. What have you got for me today, girl?"

Croy beamed as she pushed the Library door closed. The light came from dozens of candles - fat, dripping things of raw tallow with three wicks each. By their noisome illumination Lara could marvel at the Library's treasures, stacked with tender care along all four walls: an inside-out _um'brela;_ a scarlet _tell-a-fon_; a hand-sized female idol with impossible proportions said to have been a childhood protection symbol.

Piles of manuscripts and crumbling objects (_books_, Croy had called them) filled every nook and cranny. Croy's desk was lost under the weight of ancient texts. Croy lived under a dusty coating of moulding paper; it covered his shoulders and clothes, thick as bird droppings. No longer young and nimble enough to climb the shelves, he still looked fondly at the woman standing by the doorway, remembering how she had grown up scaling the tottering piles, agile as any of the _monkees_ from legend. Such activities had naturally honed the youthful orphan's body into a peerless Scavenger, able to hunt and conceal herself anywhere, while Croy's tutelage and the Library's texts had honed her mind.

Still smiling, Croy reached for his cane and swung his bad leg from under the desk. It was common knowledge that he had almost lost the limb in a Norveg trap, and it was only luck that had allowed him to wriggle free when they came for him. Even now, it was a story to widen children's eyes during nightly gatherings by the fireplace.

Lara preferred to keep to herself, even during the gatherings.

She opened the bag, and reverently set its fragile contents on the desk. "I found it."

Croy gave a silent 'Ahh!' as she gently parted the pages, displaying their pictures for the first time in… who knew how long? Miraculous colours and shapes shone in the candlelight, while explanatory text filled in the gaps.

"Marvellous Lara… this is… marvellous!" Croy was enraptured. "To think… an original _Argos_ script, right here, now, in this very room! Ah, my dear, you have outdone yourself!"

"I haven't started translating it yet," she remarked dryly. "But the pictures strongly suggest that the Ancients _did_ make extensive catalogues of their sacred treasures. Your theory would seem to be correct."

Croy's rheumy eyes glistened as he spoke. His accent still carried the lisp of his original colony, exterminated more than four decades ago. "My dear Lara… this will have pride of place amongst your relics. But come, I have something else to show you. Something, perhaps, even grander…"

Lara, still in her muddy hunting leathers, stood politely as Croy drew from a hidden drawer a fragment of paper. He'd mounted it on a backboard using cow's-foot glue, and covered the whole thing with a waxed coating to make it waterproof.

"I know how you love a good mystery," Croy was saying as he passed it to her waiting hands. "So tell me… what do your translations make of _that?_"

Lara frowned, struck by the precise Ancient handwriting. "It's by the scholar-" she squinted "-_Cienti._ Most of the paper's been burned or water-damaged."

"Read the part that isn't." Croy was almost trembling with excitement.

As Lara struggled with the text, her heart began thumping ever harder. Fragmentary as the paper was, she could clearly make out a picture and notes, all of them leading to only one conclusion.

"It's a map," she said eventually. "A map to the lost city of N'phal!"

3.

Lara set out the next morning, before the birds even announced dawn.

In silence she stole through the undergrowth, not waiting for the others to keep up. She could hear them if she listened hard enough, but otherwise her companions were invisible and inaudible in the way all Scavengers had to be if they wanted to survive.

Her announcement had brought mixed reactions at the previous night's gathering. The crowd had sat huddled around the fire pits; groups of restless shadows and eyes reflected the dancing flames. Calmly she had stated her intention to find the lost city of N'phal - the City of Creation, as the old ones called it in their fireside stories. No one else would be forced to come with her, although a dozen hands had flown up from volunteers - Scavengers eager to plunder the supposed wealth of N'phal. Others had looked at her with scorn and tucked into their supper without a word. Lara knew they thought her quest a fancy-tale, and that she would do better to stay and help the colony with her skills instead of risking them on a dangerous and likely pointless dream.

In the end, Lara had hand-picked three of the strongest volunteers and told them to be ready by daybreak. She herself had snatched a couple of hours' rest in the Library, packed her gear and set off before the appointed time, half-hoping to get away alone. Company could be valuable, but she often tired of looking out for anyone but herself.

After over a day's travel though, even Lara had to admit that these Scavengers knew their stuff. Zip had surprised her - she hadn't thought anything could have dragged him away from his workshop, where he spent every waking hour fashioning odd bits and pieces out of random junk. He had been the one to build her twin _pistoles_ four years ago, out of arcane knowledge he called 'clockwork'. They looked like bunches of pipes and gears to Lara, but after a few lessons she had grasped their killing potential with, quite literally, both hands. Now they were her signature weapons. Many other Scavengers had placed orders, only to be turned away disappointed. The parts were unique, Zip had said, like the woman who wielded them.

The other two, Amanda and Kurtis, were as inseparable as they were different; Amanda, a pale will-o'-the-wisp with enormous eyes, and Kurtis, sullen and strong as the north wind. They made a fine hunting pair, and Lara, though at times unnerved by their closeness, was happy to have them cover her back.

They travelled relentlessly, both day and night - a risk that would have mortified Winston. The map's directions were vague, but Lara had had enough experience reading the Ancients' texts to have a fair idea where they were heading. There were precious few in the Croft who could read, never mind understand something as abstract as a map. Lara had tried to explain it to her twin, years and years ago, but though her red-headed sister was one of the finest Scavengers of the colony, the notion that a landscape could be contained in a drawing was beyond her. Lara missed her with an ache that still stole her breath, especially when she came home to the nest they had shared, only to find it empty and cold.

The country gradually changed. The Croft was sited at the very fringes of a Norveg city - close enough for the Scavengers to have rich pickings, but not so close as to attract attention. As Lara and her party pressed on, the countryside grew more unkempt. They skirted the farms where grain grew taller than their heads, and hacked their way into the wild tangles that lay beyond. They rarely spoke - a Scavenger habit - yet each time they called rest Lara felt the questions in every glance. The slightest noise had them all ducking for cover. Often it would only be a hawk, or worse, one of the naked toad-rats whose burrows made giant wrinkles in an otherwise featureless landscape. Once, one of the beasts rose in a shower of dirt and pebbles, bawling loud enough to bring every Norveg for fifty miles and nearly took Kurtis' leg in its jaws. He shot it through the eye, but they left it where it fell. Toad-rat flesh was poisonous.

After almost a week of travelling, they set camp in an abandoned burrow in a riverbank. _Water-growl_, Kurtis had said, in his gruff, monosyllable way, and proceeded to sharpen his daggers.

"I think we're getting close," she said, when everyone was getting ready to bed down for the day. Three pairs of eyes watched her. Zip's mouth was turned up in a wry smile. The other two stared unblinking - their arms wrapped around each other like their hearts would stop if they let go.

She had brought out the map, studying it closely. "N'phal was said to lie in a green valley, between two hills and beside a river, '_the greatest power there has ever been_'." Lara sipped her water, waiting for an answer. There was none. "We passed into these hills two days ago, and the river here is the deepest I've encountered. If we press on, we should start to see more signs mentioned in the map very soon."

Lara had first watch. Even though the burrow was abandoned, there was no telling if the owner might return.

She had scarcely begun to wonder about what really lay in N'phal when she caught a scent on the breeze - faint, but unmistakable.

In a blur of motion she was kneeling beside the others, shaking them gently and signalling with coded finger-taps.

_Norveg. Close._

Zip readied his bow. Kurtis and Amanda both drew their weapons - daggers and sticky packets of black powder and resin. Weapons to maim and distract. Kurtis was rumoured to have killed a Norveg, once, but that was all it was - a rumour. The possibility of it actually happening was laughable.

They could hear them now - a chittering, squeaking chatter that drained the blood from Lara's face, though her hands on her _pistoles_' triggers remained steady. Footsteps sent dirt pattering down from the burrow's ceiling.

She was sweating, wishing she had the luxury of wondering what had given them away, when it happened. A deafening BANG and smoke was all around them - thick, oily stuff unlike anything Lara had ever breathed before. The smoke filled Lara's world, making her retch in her determination not to panic. But it was no use. Out there were the Norveg and the possibility of death. Inside the burrow, there was only death.

"_Move!_" She roared, with tear-streaked eyes. The others stumbled past her, clutching their weapons and coughing.

They ran, assaulted by fresh air.

The Norveg were waiting.

"No!" Lara cried out, lunging after Zip as he was scooped up in a wire-mesh cage. His bow lay useless on the ground. His eyes were terrified.

"Lara BEHIND YOU!" Amanda shrieked, and took a heroic leap into the same cage where Kurtis lay, bleeding but tearing at the mesh with his hands. He roared as though it would make the metal blanch away in fear, but the cage held him fast.

A shadow fell across Lara and she was running before she had time to think, feinting and dodging. A stitch tore at her ribs but she kept going, turning with a howl to empty both _pistoles _at her attacker. The clockwork whirred, clicked, and hot little pellets lodged themselves in the Norveg's outstretched hand. The Norveg hissed, more out of shock than pain, and made a second grab, but Lara dodged right between its legs.

Metal tripped her, sending her rolling and bouncing into the waiting cage. The trap snapped shut behind her, and she felt herself being raised, higher and higher… so high!

A face regarded her - pointed snout and whiskers, chittering in satisfaction, with beady black eyes larger than Lara's head - a face and a creature right out of every human's sweat-soaked nightmare.

A Norveg.

4.

Frantically, Lara fought to reload her_ pistoles_. But the pouch that had held extra bullets was missing - abandoned in their haste to escape the choking black smoke. Most of her other supplies - a bandage-roll kit, some dried meat and a shrew-skin of water - were still slung in bundles around her waist.

The Norveg were loading them into a dark space - a cavern so huge Lara could not see its full extent. The cages were buckled together like the toy bricks Lara had played with as a child. No sooner were they all locked in than utter darkness fell, as the cave entrance closed with a resounding _clang_.

Clasping the cold metal bars, Lara quickly assessed her group. Kurtis was still bleeding, but awake. Amanda and Zip were unhurt, but everyone had lost their weapons and almost all their supplies.

The ground began to tremble. A throaty rumbling set the cages shaking, and only Lara's tight grip on the bars saved her from falling as the cave _lurched_.

Impossibly, they were moving.

Lara had no idea of the time they spent swaying in the darkness. The journey, if that was what it was, lasted long enough for her to realise how thirsty she was. They shared out her meagre water ration, knowing that if a chance came to escape they would have to be strong to take it.

But that chance never came. Even when the cave fell still and the light flooded back, blinding and harsh, they were not taken out of their cages. Instead, each human found themselves carried along polished white hallways and examined by still more chittering, curious Norveg.

The chattering was starting to get on Lara's nerves. She had never felt this frightened, yet the fear only made her angrier with herself and with the Norveg who had outsmarted her. Even when she was lifted from her cage and held in the immovable, claw-tipped grip of the brown-furred Norveg, she would not stop fighting to get away - swearing, biting and kicking at the horny fingers to absolutely no avail.

The Norveg jotted something down on a pad, and lowered Lara into a transparent box. She fell onto fresh straw, sweet and homely, and looked up in time to see a strong mesh roof slide into place, locking her in.

"Let me out!" She pounded on the walls, trying in vain to find any purchase for climbing.

"Well, if it isn't another wild one," said a voice, startling her. The voice was low and sultry. "Don't waste your time, dear. It's much more comfortable to rest a while."

"Who are you?" Lara said, scanning the room. Everything was blindingly white and lit brighter than high noon. "Show yourself! Where is my team?"

A shape through the box resolved itself as the occupant stepped closer, until she was almost pressed against the glass that divided them. The tall human gazed at Lara, taking in her torn and travel-stained hunting leathers. Her own clothing was spotlessly white, and her golden hair was neatly combed and shining. Her eyes were chips of glacial ice.

"Your team is in the same state you are my dear, although I can only hope that they're getting cleaned up. I can smell you even here. As to my name," she smiled, and it was not a kind smile. "You can call me Natla."

5.

Natla.

A captive-bred. Physical perfection, mentally sharp. Never wanting for food or water. Regularly cleaned and groomed. And tested. Endlessly tested.

Lara learned about the testing very quickly. Each day the same Norveg would take the humans from their cages and set them doing tasks. They would have to figure out mazes, solve coloured puzzles, and perform basic counting. Lara was surprised by the Norveg's gentleness - she had grown up, as most humans had, thinking all Norveg only captured humans for sport or food. But this was different.

"Never let them know how much you know," Natla had told her that first day when Lara had demanded answers. "As soon as they realise how smart we are, there'll be no end to it. Here we get fed, watered, _pampered_. And for what? A few tricks any baby could do."

But still, the captivity gnawed at Lara day and night. She was used to the smells of the earth, of _textures. _Surprisingly, she also missed her own kind. She had wept, silent and fierce, as the rest of her team was taken to separate rooms where, Natla remarked, they were unlikely to ever come out. Lara could hardly bring herself to consider that she and superior, dispassionate Natla belonged to the same species.

The natural rhythm of day and night faded, replaced by the routines of the Norveg researchers. Natla speculated that they were interested in discovering cures for Norveg diseases, even though Lara knew that most Norveg would eradicate whole colonies of humans without a second thought. It made little sense to Lara, whose desire for escape and, impossibly, to avenge her team, burned more strongly as time went on.

"Aren't you worried," she asked Natla one night, "that the Norveg will simply tire of you?"

"Small chance of that, Lara," she replied breezily, preening at her reflection in the stainless steel food bowl. "I'm their prized specimen. Now _you_… I'm truly surprised you've lasted this long-"

"But you know they will, sooner or later," Lara said. "Have you ever heard of a human being allowed to leave this place? One day they'll come and lift you out… you'll be limp and placid, thinking nothing bad can possibly happen… and before you know it you'll be pinned on one of those tables while they gut you slowly. I bet they theorise about how long you'll take to die-"

"ENOUGH!" Natla hissed, rising to her not-insignificant height. "You _dare?_"

"Time for harsh truths Natla," Lara said coolly. She was almost enjoying herself. "You don't belong here anymore than I do. You think you're a pet but you're a prisoner. You think they won't tire of you, but they will."

It was Lara's turn to stand. "Come _with_ me, Natla. I think I know a way out, but I need your help. And you'd not last five minutes in the wild without me." She held out a hand, palm against the glass.

Natla's mouth twisted as though tasting an unripe grapefruit, but after a hesitant pause, she mirrored Lara's gesture. Her tone was dry and eyes sparkled with disdain. "Why not? It's been a long time and this specimen jar offers… little in the way of amusement. What did you have in mind?"

6.

They did it as soon as the researchers shut the door and turned down the lights. Lara wanted maximum hours of darkness for their escape.

"Most undignified," Natla grumbled, as Lara helped hoist her out of her cage. The locks on the cages were simple level-bolt affairs that she could - and did - open with one hand. Natla had had the right idea by not letting the Norveg suspect just how clever their human captives really were. Lara told her so, but Natla only shook her head.

"That was the easy part," she sneered. "How did you plan on getting out of the lab?"

Laboratory - one of many new words Lara had learned during their conversations. She pointed. "Over here."

Theirs were the only two cages in the room. A pity they couldn't have more help, thought Lara, as they set about levering the cover off an air vent near the floor. Natla had explained that the Norveg piped their air into every room of the building, and Lara's escape plan had begun taking shape. Ultimately, all air had to come from the outside.

Lara felt she could almost be back home as they crawled through the vents - endless dark passages, but with cold metal under their feet instead of earth. The white jumpsuit Lara had been forced into matched Natla's perfectly, but would be too conspicuous once they made it outside. She resolved to roll in some mud at the earliest opportunity.

At last the vent ended and they crouched, drinking in icy, fresh air under a graceful stand of willow trees that had rooted right next to the building. Lara swiftly set the pace, showing Natla how to move from shadow to shadow, making no noise on the soft ground. They had timed it perfectly; no Norveg saw them, and traffic (as Natla scathingly called it) was at a minimum. Lara did not want to imagine trying to dash across the roads in broad daylight.

A few days after their escape, the pair arrived at a stream far from any Norveg habitations. Lara double- and triple-checked the area for nearly a mile before declaring it safe to slake their thirst in the crystal waters. She even managed to snatch a few silvery fish who were basking in the shallows while Natla caked their jumpsuits (by then considerably less pristine) with rich, thick river mud. Her bright golden hair was hidden beneath a cap of woven leaves.

"I think… this is it," Lara murmured one night as they woke for their next march. She was searching the stars as they wheeled above - a map and a mystery that all humans gazed at with longing at some point in their lives. "The two hills and the river… It's N'phal, it has to be."

Natla had scoffed when Lara had first mentioned her quest back in the lab, but a few days out of captivity had changed her. Her bones stood out and there was a shrewdness to her eye that exploration and danger had sharpened to a fine edge. Despite no experience, she had caught a rabbit on only her second attempt. The animals simply froze as she approached, as if fear of the sight of her was like a javelin through their hearts.

"N'phal," Natla echoed, looking at Lara. "Are you sure you want to go down?"

"I have to know," Lara said.

The going became tougher with every mile. Thorns ripped at their skin and clothing. Brambles would snare legs and trip them into black mud bogs. They were even forced to detour to avoid a thrants' nest. One drop of the territorial insects' venom could dissolve a man from the inside out. Lara missed her friends with such bitterness that at times it felt as though she had swallowed a thrant stinger, but Natla's adroitness and willingness to learn at least helped to make the practicalities of their journey easier.

"There!" Lara gasped, sending birds fluttering off in a panic at the noise. But she didn't care. Her eyes shone as she pointed. "The river… N'phal! It's real!"

Natla squinted, shielding her eyes from the sun. Down in a sheltered valley, almost hidden in the green sea of foliage, rose the outlines of what could only be buildings. Human sized buildings. The very notion was enough to shock Lara into silence.

They didn't wait till nightfall. Like a pair of gazelles, the two women zig-sagged down to the valley floor, following switchbacks and sloshing through water meadows carpeted with yellow flowers. The ruins stood shrouded in ivy and moss, guarded by sparse, weedy-looking trees.

Lara was hot, sun burnt and soaking wet, but at that moment she couldn't remember being happier. N'phal… the legendary lost city… City of Creation…

The nearest wall was covered with lichens and algae, but she thought there was a pattern underneath the grime. Lifting a flattish stone, Lara began scraping off the worst of the muck, revealing the words underneath. It was written in the Ancients' script, which she easily translated.

"New… Grange," she muttered, "Phar… Pharma-col-ogy… and Health… Animal…"

"Laboratories," finished Natla, who had been exploring but who now stood watching with interest, her arms folded. "Newgrange Pharmacology Health and Animal Laboratories. N. P. H. A. L. Oh, don't look at me like that, Lara. I spent years playing with the Norveg. I know how to read. Come, see what I've found."

Lara's mouth had gone dry. The excitement was draining out of her, leaving an uncomfortable twist in her stomach.

Natla led her through the ruins. At length they came to an underground hallway. Together, they managed to break the seal on a door and discovered a chamber that reminded Lara starkly of the Library back home. Curious instruments lined dust-covered shelves. Paintings, faded but exquisitely beautiful to Lara's burrow-raised eyes, all but hid the walls.

On the single desk, hardly damaged at all, lay a series of bound pages with colourful covers. Lara picked them up, and read with trembling fingers.

"_New Scientist: The Greatest Power There Has Ever Been?_"

Below the letters was a picture of a human in a white coat, smiling proudly. In one hand he held a glass tube of greenish liquid. In the other, his fingers grasped the tiniest Norveg Lara had ever seen. Its fur was dazzling white, and it peered up at her with fearful, pink-tinged eyes.

On the next page was a map - undamaged yet identical to the one Croy had shown Lara.

"Ah…" Lara heard Natla say, as though commenting on the weather. "Not what you were expecting."

"How can this be?" Lara felt that she was standing on the edge of a mountain, with the wind pushing at her back. At any moment she might fall, or fly. "The Norveg… how did they get so _small?_"

"You said there was a power here," Natla said. "You were right. Knowledge has always equalled power. Call me a cynic-" she tilted her head mockingly, "-but it seems that humans had a lot more knowledge in those days. So… Now that you've found it, what do you plan on _doing_ with that power, Lara of the Croft?"

Lara forced herself to put down the papers, and looked Natla in the eye. A wind, the first felt in that room for centuries, lifted strands of her hair. It tasted of growing plants and fertile earth, and dried the tears on Lara's cheek.

"Use it." She said softly, and stalked out of the room.


End file.
